Mistakes We Knew We Were Making
by ashesxfromautumn
Summary: At first Casey thought Derek was just pulling pranks on Max to pull pranks, but what if it was more than that?
1. Chapter 1

bDISCLAIMER:/b I do not own Life With Derek. Blahblahblah. Dasey.

BA/N:/b This is my first Dasey fanfic .. Or actually, my first fanfic. So, please be nice, and maybe dish out some constructive criticism? Also, I wasn't sure how long this would turn out to be, so if it's fairly short than I will make sure the next one is longer. That's all. :

"DER-EK!"

A screech racketed back and forth off the walls of the Venturi-McDonald household, the owner of such a shrill tone could be presently found slamming the door of her room and trudging the few feet down the hall that seperated her from the one person who could make her so on-edge. He was the one person that could make her lose all of her composure and erupt in shrieks of frustration, and he enjoyed every pitiful minute of it. Her constant annoyance was his goal every time, and every time his goal was achieved he would sit back, relax, and enjoy every waking moment. Even when he was not awake, he would plot situations over and over again in his mind while he slept, trying to get them perfect. Usually, though, his plans never had to be perfect; it was never a far drive to make her fall off the edge of the cliff that held all of her dignity. Endless hours of his amusement had come from watching her tear the house to pieces, or slam every door in the house trying to find him, anything that caused her to reach that point - the point of complete frustration, and even hatred, towards him - had been the best part of irking her, it had been the best part of watching her fall apart.

Derek Venturi currently lay in his bed, reading a magazine - or rather, staring at a magazine; he had secretly been waiting to hear the familiar tone of annoyance that meant his plan had worked - when his step-sister Casey burst through his door. He barely turned his head to look at who it was, he knew exactly who it was that had rudely obliterate his door from its prior position and slammed it into the wall. That poor door of his had seen better days, it seemed now that the only hope it ever saw was few and far between, seeing how Casey would take every chance she got to completely destroy it by slinging it as hard as she could into his wall. Speaking of his wall, he had yet to find out for himself if that, too, had seen better days. He would have not put it past Casey to have slung the door into it so many times now that it would have acquired a gaping hole from being abused so many times. One thing he would hand to the girl, would be the fact that once she was mad, she was much stronger and capable of slamming things well. If there was a contest for such a thing, she would definitely win hands down, or maybe that was a quality in all girls.

Turning his attention toward the source of the current shrieking, Derek raised a brow and tried to focus in on what exactly she was carrying on about. It was an unfortunate habit of hers - unfortunate to him, at least - that once he had upset her, she would go off on a full-fledged rant about how this was something that meant a lot to her, or how that was the only thing she was asking for, was it really so hard? Well, as a matter of fact, yes it was so hard. Why should he have to listen to her whine about this and that, when she should be accepting the fact that he was always going to be there, bothering her. Their parents had been together for however many years now (Derek had lost count, considering he really didn't care), and here she was still blabbing on and on about how immature he was. Derek was aware of his maturity level, and had never needed her to remind him. The main reason he even bothered pulling these pranks on her was so he could watch her being upset, so in reality if she did realize his motives, then she would probably just stop reacting all together.  
Which, of course, would not be good for him, she was good practice for his latest pranks and seeing her reaction only made it ten times better.

She looked at him in bewilderment as he had said nothing thus far; her eyes narrowed at him coldly, "Derek! I'm only going to say this once, stop messing with Max."

Derek shook his head and chuckled audibly, "Case, you get too worked up about things."

Before he could stop her, Casey quickly lunged at him, quick to dig her nails into his arm, and drag him up before he could protest. The one thing he had always hated about girls was their inability to cut their nails, they always had to keep them long because they considered it "pretty." Well, Derek might have thought something relevent to that if it had not been for the fact that they seemed to come in constant contact with his skin. He had told Casey time after time how she needed to cut her nails, but far be it for her to take advice from him. Could you consider it something unexpected, though? Day after relentless day of him pulling pranks, and shooting out insults like they were going out of style, would anyone really put much thought into taking advice,  
or even accepting it, from someone who was constantly fighting with you? For Casey, though, she seemed to do more of the fighting, Derek was more of the kind to sit back and reply with simple, but witty, comebacks. He had found, after so many years, that doing so was the best way to get a reaction out of his beloved step-sister.

She dug her nails in deeper when she noticed his look of contempt in the direction of his arm, and proceeded to drag him out of his room, "I want you to call and apologize to Max, it's the least you could do after what you did to his car!"

Casey never stopped digging her nails into Derek's arm, as long as he remained quiet. Quickly, she pulled him unwillingly through the door out into the hallway, she was hoping by now the pain was setting in. Unbeknownst to her, though, Derek didn't have as much of a problem with her digging her fingernails into him as she thought, it really wasnt that painful for him when she did it. Despite how mad she was, she had never been one to cause pain to another person, and even Derek was not an exception to this rule. So, even though she thought she was causing him an imense amount of pain, really it had never phased him much at all. He had taken it into his own accord to tell her this many a time, but she never bought it, she had herself convinced that she was really hurting him. It was quite funny, actually, to think that someone as petite as her could cause someone like him pain, but she never seemed to give up,  
and eventually stopped bringing it to her attention.

Finally wiggling himself free of her grip, probably due to the fact that she was too busy trying to find the phone than tightening a grip on him, he reared away from her and smiled at her arrogantly. Casey was momentarily lost, it took longer than usual for her to realize where he had gone, which wasn't something he hadn't expected from her; she had the tendencies. Once she finally caught a glance of him, she turned on her heal and stomped right up to him, a look of complete disgust on her face. After so many years of being around him, Casey knew his demeaner and at some points even thought she knew his plots to make her fall apart, but still words had failed her. She had thrown just about every name and adjective in the book at him, trying to make him understand how much she had truly been able to hate him at times, but nothing phased him. It was as if at points like this he was almost in-  
human, a quality that he seemed to pick up more than several times in one day. Casey had often had a hard time convincing herself that he was her brother,  
and somewhere deep, deep down he did actually care for her.

That was true, though, somewhere deep, deep down Derek did actually care for his sister. There had been many times when he had saved her from utter humiliation at school, or even saved her from being fired from work back when they were working together at Smelly Nelly's. Derek was a good guy at heart,  
and if anyone besides him ever messed with Casey, he would definitely have something to say about it, or rather something to do about it. Derek was more of the type to make someone pay physically (and by this I mean, pulling a prank on them), than tell them how wrong they were. He had found it much more effective this way, but that was probably due to the sole fact that he was just so good at pulling of pranks, endless ideas ran through his mind at any moment and he made sure to carry them out on someone. If it wasnt for Casey's sake, than it would at least be for the sake of a new prank and a good laugh.

"Kids, dinner!" It was Nora's voice that jerked them out of the intense staring they were doing.

At once, Derek turned and raced down the stairs and to the dining room table, if not to get out of the situation he was in with Casey than because of his stomach growling louder and louder by each passing second. It was a fact that Derek could only be considered a human vaccuum, Nora had often blamed it on him being a "growing boy" and would go on to explain how he needed every ounce of fuel that he devoured, what with hockey and all that physical activity he was getting. Derek, however, couldn't have cared any less about what reasons there were to his constant state of hunger, as long as it was quickly fixed. He sat down in his seat just as Edwin came striding down the steps, a gigantic grin planted on his face, Lizzie was not far off and her features could have not been the complete opposite. Just as Derek had turned his head back to the table, anxiously awaiting dinner, he saw Marti flash out of the corner of his eye in a bright pink bunny costume. The outfits his little sister wore amused him to no end, but he had always wondered where she found them - and even more, why George or Nora would have agreed to such an extreme choice of wardrobe.

Just as Edwin and Lizzie joined Derek and Marti at the table, George came from opening the kitchen doors, so Nora could get through with the food. Derek smiled as he saw what was for dinner - mashed potatoes, peas (not that he would eat them), and steak! He had to admit that Nora was by far a better cook than his mother, though he would never say this outloud, it must have been the way she was raised because his mother had never made them a meal so extravagant. It was either that, or she must to have gone to some sort of culunary school because the food she made always made him dig for seconds, and on some occasions, thirds. He clapped his hands and rubbed them together with a hungry look plasted on his features, tonight was going to be a good night for Nora's cooking, especially considering what he had just had to go threw with Ms. Drama Queen upstairs. Derek's eyes fluttered to the top of the stairs, he wondered if she would even come down for dinner tonight, no doubt she had run off to her room in tears.

"Where's Casey?" Nora asked, heading for the foot of the stairs.

"Oh, you know her, probably off complaining into her diary." Derek let out an audible chuckle, while George scolded him for it.

Nora started up the stairs, but her plans were quickly thwarted when Casey came down the stairs with a slight bounce in her step, smiling no less, Derek noted this quickly, he would have to do something about that. Nora strolled over to her seat at the table and they were all soon accompanied by Casey, who took one look at the food and sighed softly. Casey had never been one for steaks, she was much more of a chicken person, but Nora had felt it proper to switch things up a bit; most of the food they ate now a days consisted of chicken. Derek hurridly began scooping mountains of mashed potatoes onto his plate,  
followed by only a small amount of peas, and the largest steak there was to offer on the plate. Everyone at the table ignored this, he had always been this way at dinner time, and proceeded to get as much food as they could for themselves before Derek had started on second helpings. Casey had the least amount of food by the end of it and, instead of eating it, began playing with her mashed potatoes with her fork. Nora noticed this right off, she had never been the type of mom to be oblivious if her children were upset, no matter how small the difference in their actions were.

"Casey," Nora started, looking concerned for her eldest daughter, "is everything all right."

Casey looked up from playing with her peas, she had started to put them on her fork and drop them onto her potatoes, a small smile met her lips. In all actuallity, she really wasnt alright, but she didn't see the point in dumping all of her problems (most of which were centered around Derek) onto her mother's lap. Besides, she could sort these things out herself, she just had to act like everything was okay for the meantime. Though Derek had not done anything out of the ordinary, it had just seemed to be getting to her a lot more lately, for whatever reason. All of his little pranks seemed to be intensified,  
every insult he said to her was a blow to the stomach. It was not unlike Casey to get like this at things that he had done or said, but she had thought she'd moved past that stage, and moved onto the stage involving her getting back at him at all costs, she was obviously not so lucky. Turning her attention back to her mother, who now looked even more concerned than before, she broadened her smile and told her no, that everything was just fine. Nora shot her a look of disbelief, but knew Casey well enough to know that if she needed her, she would come and talk to her.

Dinner quickly came to a hault as Derek had devoured the rest of the food, Casey waited until everyone had left the table and began to collect the plates and silverware. She hauled the first load of it into the sink, and then went back for the next, failing to notice the looks Nora was giving her from the top of the staircase. Despite Nora's better judgement, she quickly came down the stairs and followed Casey into the kitchen, a loving look sprawled across her face. Casey had always loved that her mother noticed things like when she was upset, but lately it had been annoying her greatly. It seemed a common emotion for Casey to be feeling lately, actually. Regardless, Casey knew very well that once Nora got on a role about asking her question after question about what was wrong, she would eventually have to cave in and tell. As patient a mother as Nora was, she was still a mother, and always found it necessary to know what was wrong with her children, so Casey knew that there would be no point in beating around the bush with the matter, though, she didn't exactly know what to say to her mother; she didn't even know what was wrong with her. Most likely, she was just down about things with Max, and of course that would in turn affect her everyday life at school, at home, with friends that's how it usually worked out.

"Honey, please tell me whats wrong." Nora said softly, leaning against the island counter in the middle of the kitchen.

Casey let out a small sigh, "Things are just off with Max and I, but I think things might clear up in a couple of days."

She nodded curtly, and turned around to smile at her mother, Casey truly did believe that things would get better in a few days, or at least she hoped. With the way things had gone with Sam, though, the constant fighting and making up, fighting and making up agian, Casey couldn't be too sure. She and Max had been going through the same patterns lately, and she couldn't just shrug it off as minor relationship faults, the end of their relationship seemed to be looming around every corner. Casey, at this point, was still trying to convince herself that things were going to work out with him, she was going to try her hardest to keep Max as long as she could, he was such a great guy. When Casey had been dating Sam, it was easy to see the differences, but she believed that her and Max were much better for eachother, they had more in common, they were both wanting the same things out of life, though, they did get them accomplished in different ways. Regardless of how they accomplished their goals, though, Casey knew the Max and her were definitely compatible, there had been doubts with Sam. Casey had plenty of facts to back up this statement, but she also had the cons to prove that things might be coming to a close,  
so she was trying to stay positive.

Nora simply nodded her head and left Casey to do the dishes, and think. Most of the thoughts pulsating through her brain at the moment consisted of Max,  
but then her mind slowly took her in the direction of the annoyance she thought she had left upstairs, Derek. She had remained dumbfounded as to what his possible motives were, why would he continue to pester her endlessly. Could it really be for the simple fact of seeing how frustrated and maddened she became with each and every new prank he pulled on her? He couldn't have been so shallow, but then again, it was Derek. Casey rolled her eyes at the thought, his maturity level had seemed to only shrink over the past few years. Though, she did have to admit that he was more willing to help her when the situation called for it, that she was thankful for. During the first years of their new family's merge, Derek had seemed completely heartless towards her, but once he figured out he was going to have to live with her for a long while, he warmed up a small deal. She assumed part of his prank pulling problem was due to the sick idea of his that he was her step-brother and he could do that to her and it would be okay, at least he hadn't failed to recognize that if anyone else were to mess with her, he would be the one to step in. Some of his actions could at least prove that he wasnt completely cold-hearted and shallow,  
he did care for her a small amount more than she had thought. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Life With Derek, obviously.

**A/N: **I don't really know how much I like this chapter, if you think its sort of boring I'm extremely sorry; I kind of thought that myself. But I just wanted it to show mostly about their lifestyle, at least for a Sunday, and then by the end I wanted you to be aware of Derek's actions and how both Max (a little more than Casey, though) and Casey are aware. Other than that, I hope it isn't too terribly boring, please review! (And thank you to those of you that did review!)

Casey awoke to the blatant sound of her alarm clock droning out all of the commotion of last night's dream. Reaching a hand out from under her covers,she sleepily turned it off and began pushing her multi-colored sheets to her feet. It would be easy to say that Casey had always been a morning person, even when she was a child she would get up early to go outside a play. Unlike her younger step-siblings, getting up early wasn't for the sole purpose of watching cartoons, she found it far more interesting to go outside and run around. Even now, as a teenager, getting up early had stayed a habit of hers, she was never able to allow herself to sleep much past nine o'clock without feeling like she had wasted the entire day. Derek, on the other hand, would sleep considerably past noon and finale amble out of bed to do nothing but crash on his chair and watch sports the entire day. Casey had never even bothered trying to convince him that he could be doing so many more productive things with his time, she knew how he was. If he didn't give a care in the world about schoolwork, why would he care about how he spent his time on the weekends? His apathy had always made her feel sorry for him, she knew he would never realize how important school and learning to do productive things would pay off once he was an adult, but Derek probably never thought past the next weekend, let alone to what his adult life would bring him. In fact, most teenagers were like that now-a-days, Casey had never understood how they could live their lives not caring about  
how they would turn out, the thought was always bouncing back and forth in her mind.

Stretching, Casey stood up and walked over to her dresser drawer to take out some of her work-out clothes. If there was anything she loved better than school, it would have been working out. The adrenaline rush it provided kept her in an all-around great mood, and also helped her stress level that had been induced by the sorry excuse for a step-brother snoring noisily on the other side of her walls. Quickly, Casey picked out the desired clothing and dressed herself for a warm-up, followed by a jog, and then a cool-down. Unlike most people, Casey tried to make sure she did everything right when it came to exercising - or really just about anything - and planned where and what time she was going to do everything. Planning was something Casey was always up for, it was almost a necessity for her to plan every aspect of her day, even her work-out routine. By this point, though, she had been doing it long enough to have her schedule memorized, and had no problem getting ready on time. Casey walked over to her mirror and examined her reflection carefully, like most girls she had insecurities, but tried to keep them hidden, the exercising helped, though, she was physically fit for a girl. It amazed Casey how some girls would go to extremes about things like weight, when all they really had to do was eat right and exercise, but it really wasn't her place to judge, she knew what it felt like to feel insecure about things like that.

Throwing her hair up in a messy ponytail, Casey walked over to her stereo and flipped open the top and stuck a random cd in the player. Exercising was a great way for her to start the day, it really brought up her mood when she was feeling down, and helped her burn calories. She hated how lazy all her friends were, always sitting on the couch and watching television or something like that, what they really needed to be doing was exercising, or going outside at least. The mounds of potato chips they consumed didn't help, either. Seeing how Derek ate made her sick, he would easily stick handful after handful into his mouth, not even coming up for air, and could devour a whole bag of chips in a matter of an hour, sometimes even half that. Even though Casey was a fan of chips and junk food, like most people, she knew it was far better to take care of herself now then regret everything later on in life. Thinking about the future was something she did all the time, sometimes it never ocurred to her how unusual that was, until one of her friends would call her on it. Emily had done that many a time, having to bring her back down to Earth and the present situation at hand, like the drama of not having a boyfriend. Casey, thankfully, wasn't having that problem anymore, or at least, she hoped she wouldn't have to worry about it anytime soon.

Slowly, her mind began to drift to Max and their current problems, their constant fighting and making up, fighting again and making up again was really put a gaping hole in their relationship. It had been the same routine with Sam and Casey was really wishing to avoid that whole conundrum; sure, she and Sam were still good friends, but she really wanted things to work out with Max, he was different. It was hard for her to allow her mind to wander into this subject, even thinking about the fact that her and Max might be over soon made her want to completely break down in tears, they hadn't been dating that long, why were things getting so messed up and confusing already? Their fights were over little things, just like how her and Sam used to fight: Max would say something in the wrong tone, or something would come out the wrong way, and Casey would take it to heart. She had learned, though, from her past experiences not to take things so seriously, so things like that had been happening less and less. It seemed, though, that Max's part in the relationship was falling, quickly. It might have been for the fact that he had schoolwork and football practice, but Casey was beginning to suspect something else was going on. There was obviously something Max wasn't telling her. Was it something along the lines of family problems? Or was it another girl? Casey didn't even want to know if the answer was the latter, something like that would only break her.

Once she was finished with her warm-up, Casey turned off her stereo and began out into the hallway. As she closed the door to her bedroom, though, she felt her body collide with something solid. Confused, Casey turned on her heel to see someone she had never expected to be up this earily: Derek. Her face gave her confusion away, and her brow arched slightly, the look on her face obviously asking the question as to why he was awake at this hour. Derek, who had only just realized that she had bumped into him, rubbed at his eye lazily and let out a loud yawn. She could only assume that something else had woken him up, otherwise he would be asleep in his bed, probably dreaming about some new girl that had just entered the picture, or maybe even another plot to ruin her day completely, most likely the latter. His eyes met hers and they stared at one another for quite a while before he decided that it was too awkward, and averted his gaze in another direction. Casey could only assume that it was too early for him to be able to read her facial expression, and figured she was going to have to ask him why he was up so early on a Sunday of all days, a day he made sure to sleep in on. It was very uncharacteristic of him, unless maybe he had to use the bathroom, or again, something else had awoken him from his relentless sleeping pattern.

"What are you doing up?" She finally managed to get out after such a long, almost endless, silence.

He rubbed his eye again and shrugged lightly, "Couldn't go back to sleep."

Casey was surprised, usually he had no problem sleeping late, which she assumed would mean he would have no problem going back to sleep, either. Regardless, she didn't really have the time to care, and neither did he considering he left her standing by her door, heading down the stairs. Casey followed, close behind him, their encounter had only put a delay in her schedule, and she was in need to catch up. When she reached the stairs, she watched him veer towards the kitchen to get something to eat, she continued in the opposite direction before calling over her shoulder that he should tell her mom, if asked, the she had gone out for a jog. When she didn't recieve a reply, she rolled her eyes, and continued out the front door. Leave it to Derek to fail to receive any sort of information this early in the morning, it probably hadn't even registered in his brain that he was awake yet. Hopefully, though, Nora would automatically assume, or at least Derek would remember and if she asked, he could give her an answer. Knowing him, though, he would probably just eat breakfast and go back to sleep, and Casey would be left coming home to a worried Nora, and having to explain why she didn't leave a note. If only she had left a note, which is what she usually did, she might be able to avoid some trouble from her mother, but maybe things would work out in her favor and she wouldn't have to worry about it at all. It didn't really matter, though, Nora should be used to Casey's morning jogs by now, and be able to figure out where she was.

Back at the house, Derek sleepily made himself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the island counter to eat it. A few moments later, he was joined by Marti, today in a fairy costume, who went to the refridgerator and got out chocolate milk and her own cereal from the pantry. Derek didn't even bother to notice when she began mixing them together and walk off with an over-filled bowl of chocolate milk with chocolate cereal. It wasn't like he would have cared, anyway, he did the same thing, even now. As he shoveled the cereal into his mouth, he drifted in and out of consciousness, his body on autopilot the whole time. He was more in a dream-like state, probably from his lack of sleep, and had failed to notice Casey even say anything to him after he had arrived in the kitchen, but that thought was far from his mind, which had moved onto the dream he had had last night. It wasn't really anything knew, just the same thing he had been dreaming about for the past however long: pulling endless pranks on Max that only grew worse and worse. For some reason, unbeknownst to Derek, these recurring dreams about finding new and more amusing, almost cruel, ways to upset Max were becoming more and more frequent and had the same common variable, Casey. In each dream, she would grow even more mad and frustrated at Derek, and Max would do the same, but take it all out on Casey. Quickly, Derek could see, their relationship was starting to crumble at both of their feet, and it was all Derek's fault.

As much as Derek hated to admit it, he enjoyed every minute of it, watching their relationship fail made him feel somewhat exuberant. Of course, the reason for this, he thought, was that it was upsetting and ruining Casey's life, and that was his job after all. Over the years, the pranks might have become less, but they were much more harsh than they were previously. Sometimes Derek might find it necessary to go back to middle school ways of thinking, just because the mere act of pranking Casey was fun, but for the most part, his pranking consisted of well-devised, thought out, plans to make her crack. Actually, of late, most of his time had been spent pranking Max, instead of Casey. But, in Derek's mind, by pranking Max, he was pranking Casey, so it was basically the same thing. Casey got just as mad when he pulled his constant pranks on Max, sometimes even madder, than when he pulled the pranks on her. Derek assumed she would have rather him pull the pranks on her, but it was so much more fun to do it someone else, someone that Casey cared about. For some reason, seeing her suffer didn't make him happy, it was seeing their relationship fall apart that was making him happy. He would never have admitted it, though, mostly because he thought it couldn't be true. There had to be a reason, just one he hadn't thought of yet, to why he was consciously (and subconsciously) trying to sabatoge Casey and Max's relationship. So far he had sufficed it to be just a simple brother looking out for a sister sort of deal, he was willing enough to leave it at that.

Roughly one hour later, Derek had still found himself unable to sleep, and had started watching an old hockey game. This consisted of what he did most of the day, after he got up, that is. Watching sports was always a good way to pass the time, even though he wished it wouldn't pass, he would definitely not want to be out doing something productive with his free time, or any of his time. There were other things he enjoyed more than watching sports, though, and that was girls, something that was far beyond obvious. After his relationship with Kendra had ended, he was actually very okay with being a single man again, why would he want a nagging girlfriend after he just got rid of one? He did really like Kendra, he would admit it, but after so long he just needed someone new, he couldn't handle one girl for more than two weeks, it was just too much. Plus, what was the thrill in having the same girlfriend forever, he wasn't looking for marriage, he was just looking for some fun. After all, Derek was a teenage boy, what else could be expected from him? Most girls, at least the ones that seemed to clinge to him, were looking for longer term relationships, which ruined everything for him, and he seemed unable to escape them. Luckily, though, things with Kendra had blown over and he had been keeping an eye out for someone new, though no one had come along yet.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and closing, he looked up to see who it was and looked right back down after finding out. Casey was back from jogging - luckily, Nora had never even been around to ask - and sweat was dripping off her face, Derek paid no attention, or tried not to, and started focusing his attention back to the hockey game. It was hard, though, seeing that he had seen this game over twice now and knew every play by heart, he knew exactly what was going to happen, who was going to win, everything. Picking up the remote control, he began flicking lazily through the channels, only to find that there was nothing on due to the time. He sighed and turned off the television and threw the remote onto the couch, it was quickly picked up by Edwin and Lizzie who, until now, Derek hadn't noticed sitting on the couch beside him. Derek made his way into the kitchen, just as Casey had closed the refrigerator door, with a bottle of water in her hand, he looked her up and down momentarily. Shaking his head to himself, he left just as quickly as he entered, the look on Casey's face showed him that she had not had the best of jogs, and he really wasn't in the mood to deal with her this early in the morning, or whatever time it was, he had lost track. Derek headed up the stairs, in an attempt to go back to bed, hopefully now he could finally fall to sleep.

Casey noticed him looking at her, and then watched him leave, shaking his head as if wanting to avoid her. Obviously, it wasn't so early that he couldn't tell what sort of mood she was in. Unfortunately for Casey, her face always gave away how she was feeling at that time and often caused her unwanted confrontations with her mother, or sometimes Emily. Despite that, though, Casey made her way up the stairs and into her room, she quickly grabbed up the phone and dialed Max's number. During her jog, she had decided to call up Max and confront him, she needed to figure out what exactly was wrong before she could make an attempt to fix their relationship. Besides, they weren't exactly fighting right now, and if he didn't want to talk about it than she could play it off by asking if he wanted to hang out later in the day, maybe then they could get some girlfriend/boyfriend time in. They hadn't really been able to go out on a date lately, Casey had had too much going on at school, while Max was doing a lot of football things. It was hard for Casey, dating a football player, it seemed like that always had to come first, which of course meant that she would come second. Though, things were like that for Casey, too, school was always first, and boyfriends were always second, at least that's how she usually treated things. She had thought about changing that, though, right now it seemed like it was going to have to be done if she was going to be able to save their relationship at all.

The phone rang three times before he answered, "Hello?"

"Hey, Max." A smile met her lips, she was glad he had actually been awake.

"Oh, hey, Case." Max sounded slightly less enthusiastic.

For a full ten minutes they talked about trivial things, like school and football, she was making an attempt to warm him up so maybe he would be more willing to talk to her about what was going on with him. It wasn't as easy as she had thought, she was so anxious to figure out what was going on in his mind that her impatience had gotten the best of her more than once, but she was trying to avoid a fight at all costs. The topic of their conversation began to drift to his family, and he was actually sounding fairly happy about it, so Casey was quick to rule out that family issues might be the cause to his problems. She knew well him well enough to know that if he was down about something, he would try to avoid talking about it, she was like that, too, sometimes. The only other thought that had crossed her mind thus far was another girl, but she was fairly reluctant to bring up any talk about his ex girlfriend, or even friends of his that were girls. The thought of him wanting to leave her for another girl, of even something as audacious as cheating on her, made her cringe and almost break down into tears, so she was carefuly to avoid that subject completely. If that was the truth, she would rather found out later. Most of the time, it would be vice versa, but with how real that possibility might actually be, she was wanting to just pretend that there was another reason for his odd demeanor. Finally, she had assumed it long enough to at least address the problem.

"Max, what's going on with you?" She asked, a serious tone in her voice.

The line was quiet for a while before she heard him sigh, "It's nothing..." He trailed off, slightly.

Casey knew that he was lying, "Come on, I know there is something going on. Just tell me, maybe I can help?"

He took a deep breath, but never said anything. There was a silence on the line for a long time, and Casey mind began to fluster. Questions were racing through her mind at a mile a minute, she couldn't even begin to control them. What if it was another girl? It had to be another girl, what other explaination could there possibly be? Then Casey almost knew what the reasons for his isolation had been, he was planning to break up with her! Why else would he be acting so out of character towards her? There might be another girl, things might just not be working out, it could be a number of things, but the main point was that he was definitely thinking about breaking up with her, she knew it. Casey was working herself up, and she knew she was going to break past the point of hysteria soon, she had to calm herself down. Breaking down infront of Max, or in the case over the phone, would not be a good thing, she had to act strong at least for now. Besides, if they did break up, she couldn't say she hadn't been expecting it. What with the way he had been acting and the fact that they were fighting so much lately, but that didn't make up for any of it. Max was one of the best boyfriends she had ever had, and would ever have, he was defintely a great guy and she had intended on keeping him for a long time, but things never seemed to work out the way she intended.

"Max," she began slowly, still trying to calm herself down, "you aren't planning on breaking up with me, are you?"

He remained silent yet again, but managed a reply this time, "It's just ... Well, I keep getting the feeling..." He trailed off again.

Casey was reaching that point again, and couldn't help herself, "Getting the feeling that what?"

"I get the feeling that Derek isn't okay with our relationship." He said finally.

Casey couldn't help but start laughing uncontrollably at this, it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard in her entire life. Derek trying to break them up? Puh-lease! That would never happen in a million years, the only reason he ever did the things he did was because of how immature he was. The hockey team and the football team had never gotten along, and since Derek was the captain of the hockey team, and Max of the football team, he was bound to pull pranks on them. And if there were any other reasons than that it had to be because Derek was trying to be "brotherly" or something completely idiotic like that. The latter, though, Casey doubted extremely, the first choice had to be the reason for it all. At this point, Max had remained silent, and Casey could tell that she had hurt his feelings by laughing at him so harshly, it was just that the whole idea of the thing was one-hundred percent absurd, could he honestly believe that Derek was trying to ruin their relationship? And even if he was, why would it matter? It was Derek for crying out loud, Casey really couldn't careless if Derek was trying to be brotherly or not, or if he was just immature, that would never stop her from being with Max, they were just too good together. She would just need to pound that into Derek's brain, he could easily find someone else to mess with, or he could at least stop messing with Max and mess with her instead, it kept the drama of their relationship to a minimum.

Once her laughing ceased, Casey sighed softly, "Max, Derek is just a jerk, you have to understand that."

"I guess you're right..." She could sense the uncertainty in his voice.

After another hour of conversaton, they had come to the decision that Derek was in fact "just a jerk," and that they would continue to ignore him at all costs. Not only was it easier, and less frustrating, that way, but they were both hoping that he would just give up in the end. Even though Casey knew that Derek wasn't going to give in so quickly, she did know that he got bored eventually, and gave him only a couple weeks to finally give up and move on to someone else that he could torment. If so, she and Max would be able to continue their relationship, maybe then they wouldn't have to worry about fighting so much, Casey was hoping they would just stick to the regular relationship fights, the ones that were few and far between. Casey had made it very clear to Max how much he meant to her, and tried to get him to understand that Derek really had no life and that he needed to ignore him completely, that's what she had learned to do. Max was reluctant at first, but after all of her convincing, he agreed that it would be for the best. Casey was really hoping that this new revelation would keep them from fighting so much and let them focus on making their relationship better, something she had never gotten to do with Sam. It seemed Derek was always a key factor in the ruining of her relationships, and she knew she'd have to put a stop to that.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** I am SO sorry I haven't updated, I've probably lost all of you readers. I really just haven't had to time and I wasnt really sure where I was going with this story.. But I think I'm good now, so you can expect updates more frequently, I believe. So, on to chapter three. :

The sun shown brightly through the curtains of a certain brunette girl's room, casting odd shadows against her face as the beams infiltrated the blinds behind the curtains. Without warning, the girl shot straight up and looked haphazardly around he sun soaked room, aiming to find the alarm clock that had mysteriously gone missing from her nightstand. Quickly, Casey McDonald bolted up from her bed, leaving all the confusion of the previous moments behind her, she flung the door to her bedroom open forcefully, and stomped her way to the cause of her rude awakening. Once she reached his door, she didn't bother to knock, but instead pushed the door open in one swift movement. Her eyes grew dark as she saw that his room was vacant and she looked around in confusion, how late was it exactly? She quickly rushed downstairs to find the rest of the house completely empty, also. But this didn't add up, Casey's mind began racing, Nora would never leave her to sleep in when it was a school day, especially when it was Monday. Casey looked toward the clock on the microwave and groaned in frustration when she realized that it was already nine o'clock, how could Derek have possibly convinced Nora to allow something like this to happen?! Casey took several breaths in, attempting to calm herself, at least she hadn't slept past first period yet, she could still make it in time to at least catch the homework assignment if she hurried.

Making her way back upstairs, Casey quickly began to get ready, brushing her hair and teeth, putting on the first clothes she could find - she had forgotten to pick out her clothes the night before - finally she ran back downstairs to gather her books for school. She abruptly grabbed her purse followed by her coat, and then continued out the door to the car. Since Lizzie had protested that they not have any more cars than necessary, Derek and Casey had been forced to share a car, but since Nora had decided to take it easy for a while with her work schedule, she had started taking the bus to work, not only to make Lizzie happy, but to lessen the growing gas bill that the family was developing. Much to Casey's luck, nothing had changed in Nora's transportation to work, and her car was sitting where it always was in the driveway now, Casey smiled to herself and thanked Lizzie silently for being so concerned about the environment. Once she got in, she started up the car and backed out the driveway, now all she had to do was try to avoid the morning traffic and get to school with sometime left to regroup. If only she could have been cursed into a family without a sibling her age, or even just a girl sibling her age. Derek had never left her one moment in peace, but rather, demolished any idea that there ever could be peace in the Mcdonald-Venturi household. Yes, a girl sibling her age would have been much better, of course, anything would have been better than having Derek for a step-sibling. She would rather be slowly lowed into a vat of liquid nitrogen than spend one day in a room with Derek Venturi, but of course she wasn't so lucky. Casey sighed to herself at the thoughts that pulsed through her mind, she wondered if she and Derek would ever get along, but she knew that thought could easily be answered with a NO, NEVER, NOT GANNA HAPPEN. The only good thing she had found about Derek, was that he did have a heart way deep down somewhere, he was a good older brother. If only he could work on his brothering skills with her, then he might actually amount to something.

Reaching the school, Casey quickly parked and walked briskly to the front entrance. A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she opened the door and walked toward the attendance office, she had never had much luck with the lady who worked there. She set her books down on the counter and waited for the lady, Ms. Hudson, to look up from her work. Ms. Hudson was definitely a sight to see, she was a small, plump woman with short, curly blond hair and small rectangular eyeglasses that did nothing for her facial shape. Her style was no less than tacky, she dressed like an old woman, and she wasn't that old to begin with. Derek had plenty of names and snarky comments to say about her, and Casey had actually laughed with him about it. As much as she hated it, Derek was right about this lady, she was just so rude to everyone. When Ms. Hudson failed to notice her, Casey made a small Iahem/I noise, which quickly brought the woman out of her concentration with a sneer on her lips and her eyebrow raised. Casey couldn't help but step back slightly, when Ms. Hudson wanted to look mean, she definitely had no problem with it at all, she was worse than the Wicked Witch of the West. If only Casey could have been blessed with someone who smiled every once in a while to take care of her, this morning had been worse enough as it was and now she had to deal with this old hag. Regardless, Casey put on the most convincing smile she could muster before she asked for a late pass to class. Once Ms. Hudson got her name and her first period teacher, she nodded curtly and handed her the pass. Casey thanked her, the smile now faded from her lips, and quickly hurried off to her first period, which conveniently had ten minutes left. Casey smiled to herself, at least she could still get the homework assignment and not miss anymore class the rest of the day than she already had. And Derek thought she was such a mess, she knew how to remain calm and collected long enough to get what she needed done, he underestimated her so much.

"Ah. Ms. McDonald, we're pleased you could finally grace us with your presents." Mr. Wyatt commented flatly as she rushed in and handed him her pass.

Casey didn't say anything, but sat down in her desk and looked straight at the whiteboard, waiting for him to resume the rest of his lesson. Mr. Wyatt had never been one of Casey's favorite teachers and she was sure that he had never liked her very much. Apparently, making good grades and being a generally nice person was something Mr. Wyatt didn't value, he would rather make jokes with Derek and admire his sarcasm and aloofness. Casey had found Mr. Wyatt a good teacher, but that was as far as it went for him, once you associated with the enemy - obviously Derek - you had fallen of the deep end, in Casey's opinion. That wasn't to say, however, that Mr. Wyatt wasn't capable of getting things taught, though, he would push Derek and students like him when need be, so Casey did favor him in that aspect. Putting her mind back on what Mr. Wyatt was finishing up, her face began to contort into a frown as she realized that he was teaching material that she had never heard of before. Something about graphing and classifying cronics, Casey's mind was spinning, what did all of that mean? Casey sighed and stared helplessly at what Mr. Wyatt was writing on the board, it all looked like gibberish to her and she really could not see how she was supposed to wrap her head around all of this in the last five minutes of class. Her mind quickly shifted to a loathing for Derek, how could he do this to her? Now she would never know how to graph and classify a cronic, whatever that meant! Her mind then twisted into images of her strangling Derek for making her miss the most important class of the day, math was hard enough for her to begin with. If only she could actually put that thought into action, strangling Derek would only make her life completely uncomplicated, oh, how she longed to never have to deal with him ever again.

Suddenly, the bell rang and snapped her out of her thoughts of bliss. Casey gathered her books and walked up to Mr. Wyatt's desk, a look of concern plastered on her face. She could tell that he really didn't want to deal with her at the moment by the look on his face, he obviously had more important things to get to. It was easy to tell by the way that he was tapping his foot against the tile floor, waiting for her explain to him why she had such a look strewn on her pretty face. She took a deep breath, trying her best not to let her face switch into a look of pure hatred for him having an attitude like that toward a student, and stared him in the eye, almost allowing that hatred to be seen.

"Mr. Wyatt," she began, "since I was late to class today -"

He cut her off abruptly, "You don't understand the material."

She nodded slowly, well, at least he understood her concern.

"Well, I can help you out during lunch, is that all right with you?"

Before Casey could respond, Mr. Wyatt nodded curtly and left the classroom, his urgency completely apparent. Casey rolled her eyes and head off toward her locker before she ended up being late for yet another class. The time Mr. Wyatt had picked could not have been a less convenient time, she was supposed to eat lunch with Max that day, just the two of them. Of course, now that plan was completely shoved down the drain, maybe she and Max could just reschedule, they'd have to. With his uncertainties, though, Casey was concerned that maybe he might not be able to accept everything as easily as she had, she was really starting to worry about how he was analyzing things. It seemed to her that he had been busy overanalyzing every situation and nitpicking to the point where he would eventually be able to find a flaw with everything, her reassurance that everything was okay didn't seem to put much hindrance to his analyzing. If only she could explain to him, and make him realize that he was perfect for her and she would never let anything, or anyone, change that. For a football player, who had the cool, aloof stereotype, Max was definitely insecure about a lot of things in their relationship. Casey had never expected him to be that way, she had figured that it would be the other way around, Casey was always insecure about everything she did - relationships, school, anything, really. But it was nice being on the other side of it, even if Max was suffering because of it.

Once Casey gathered her books from her locker, she turned on her heel and headed toward her next class. This was one that she shared with Derek, and hopefully she could get there early enough to chew him out. On the way to the classroom, Casey noticed Derek leaning casually against a wall talking to a girl that she had never seen before. Her eyes darkened, she would be glad to break up this little chat, she marched straight over to Derek and grabbed his arm, glaring daggers at the girl he was talking to. She pulled him all the way to the other side of the hallway and shoved him as violently as she could into the wall lined with lockers. Derek had a small look of annoyance on his face, but he quickly covered that up with his trademark smirk and leaned against the wall aloofly, as if he had done nothing wrong. He was always trying to make things look like Casey was making a bigger deal out of it than need be, saying that she was melodramatic and a drama queen. Well, Casey was glad to be both, if it got the job done - which it never did, but she liked to think it might have done something - then that was what she would do.

"Derek!" She tried to get him to realize the gravity of the situation. "I've told you over and over Inot/I to mess with my things, especially my alarm clock."

He stood there, that same aloof air about him, and acted like he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Thanks to you I know have to miss my lunch with Max!" She pushed him against the wall again, "I can't believe you."

With that she rolled her eyes at his lack of caring, and stormed into the classroom. Why was it so hard to get it through his head that the things he did were not okay? Why couldn't he just stick to bullying Edwin? That was what older brothers did to younger brothers, they didn't patronize their female siblings. At least, not like this. He always managed to push her buttons until she finally just exploded. Usually it was on him, but she had managed to bottle it up until she brought it on to her mother, the worst case scenario, or sometimes Lizzie. It seemed like her mother just ignored everything that went on between her and Derek, Nora never tried to do anything about Derek. George would occasionally yell at him if he did something too mean, but nothing really happened and Derek was never disciplined. It was as if he was the Almighty Son and, despite Casey's perfect grade point average and even her trying to be Miss Perfect, Derek always came out on top. What did she do to deserve a brother like this? At first, she had thought that things might get better over time and they had, but lately things had gotten worse. What had caused Derek to change so drastically? What was the common variable that he always tried to agitate? Well, it seemed like that would be Casey, who else would he do this to? But Casey already knew the answer to that question, Max. But why?

After class was over, Casey went to find Max, since this was the period that had lunch. It was easy to find him, he always waited in the same place, beside the doors of the cafe. He was standing there and looked extremely cute, why did Mr. Wyatt have to schedule the math tutoring now? Casey didn't know if she could resist the urge to skip, but she knew she had to learn the concept in math. A frown met her lips as she walked slowly over to Max, she hated having to do this. He was such a catch and she couldn't even believe that they had been together so long and things had been going so well, sort of. And her she was, causing more problems for their relationship, all because of stupid, immature Derek. Why did he have to ruin everything? Casey took a deep breath before she reached Max.

"Hey, Max." She smiled slightly.

He pulled her into a warm hug before greeting her, "Hey, Case."

Well, he seemed to be in a good mood, unfortunately Casey would be the one who had to ruin that. "I hate to have to do this..." She began, regretting it immediately as his smile faded, "but I have to get tutored for math thanks to Derek making me late for school this morning. I've missed the whole lesson and I don't understand a thing."

"Oh," his tone was full of defeat, "well, that's okay, I understand. We can reschedule for tomorrow." He nodded, adding a fake smile for reassurance.

"Are you sure?" Casey tilted her head, not buying it. "I feel so terrible, I'm so sorry, Max."

He shook his head, "No, no. It's okay. Go get tutored!" He smiled jokingly.

Casey nodded and gave him a quick kiss before she continued off toward Mr. Wyatt's classroom. Oh, she was going to kill Derek for making her miss their lunch. Max took things so well, or at least tried his best to cover his hurt up, why did Derek have to be the cause to her doing all of this to him? He was such a terrible brother, and a complete jerk. There was no reason for him to ruin her relationship with Max like this. There wasn't a reason, was there? Maybe he was trying to protect her, be brotherly? No. Derek had to have another reason, something far better than being brotherly, he would never do that. But what was it? Casey was determined to find out. She would have to confront him about this soon. But how would she even begin to start a conversation like that? IDerek, why are you ruining my relationship with Max? I He would probably laugh in her face at such an accusation and then tell her that it was her fault for doing something like that. Because God forbid that anything was ever the Great Almighty Derek's fault, no, that wouldn't be the right way to go about things. Before she could come up with a better way to start that conversation, though, she reached Mr. Wyatt's room.

He was sitting at his desk, an Algebra textbook already out and open to the lesson they learned earlier. Mr. Wyatt motioned for her to have a seat, and she obeyed. She quickly got her text book out, opened up to the correct lesson, and waited for him to begin teaching. She could tell that he was annoyed, obviously, this was his lunch period also because he had a sandwich still in its' wrapper laying on his desk. Casey felt bad for bringing him from his lunch, but it was his idea to meet during lunch, so there really wasn't much else she could do. As he began to teach, however, Casey was snapped out of her thoughts.

"Now," he began after he had written two points on the whiteboard, "as you know, you need to plot these points and make a rough sketch."

Casey nodded slowly. She could do this so far, it didn't seem too hard.

He cleared his throat and continued, "The ellipse has a horizontal major axis, so it's form will look like this.." He drew the from on the board before making sure she understood. She did, so he continued on, "Now you need to find the center, which is halfway between the verticles."

Casey nodded a second time, now understanding what he was saying. The lesson continued on, and she couldn't help but become distracted, this was the last place she wanted to be right now. Her mind began drifting off to where she could be: with Max, just the two of them, enjoying their lunch and making her Monday one-thousand times better. But no, she had to be here, trying to understand stupid chronics, which was getting her no where at this point, Mr. Wyatt had completely lost her. She was going to have to get back at Derek for this. His stupid pranks were not only affecting her schooling and education, but also her relationship with Max. This was not all right! She could not stop thinking about how his pranks might end up completely destroying their relationship. But, and Casey couldn't keep this thought from resurfacing in her mind, is that what he really wanted? It seemed to her like that was his goal, but what could possibly be his motive for wanting that?


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Okay, so I don't know how I feel about this chapter. I feel like the progression might be a little slow, I'm very sorry about that. The next chapter, or couple of chapters, will be better I promise! Also, if this chapter is shorter, I'm sorry. I'm trying to decide on a paragraph length that is easier to read. Read and review, please? Hopefully it isn't too much crap. :

The rest of Casey's day went exceptionally well considering the morning she'd had. When the final bell did ring, though, Casey was easily the first person out the door. She hurried to her locker, making sure to check and re-check that she had gotten all of her books and folders that she needed for homework, and then quickly continued on out to the front of the school where she always met Max. She was really going to start making it a point to reassure him of everything, their relationship was very important to her, and she knew that in time Derek and his lack of maturity would not phase Max anymore. Since Max and Derek had never gotten along well, though, it was easy for Casey to see why Max was so hard to reassure about the situation, both had blame on their shoulders. Derek was more relentless and, even after Max had given up, continued to pull immature pranks on him.

Casey reached the benches in front of the school and laid all of her belongings down on the ground, taking a seat with a breath of relief. Max had always commented on how she was never seen without pounds and pounds of books and had even started helping her carry them all. She watched as students passed by, most of them in a hurry to get home, and smiled to herself at how much of relief they all got at being able to go home and relax. Even though Casey had always loved school, it was nice to go home and relax and take a breath of fresh air after having been locked up inside for such a long period of time. Of course, after that breath of fresh air, Casey would begin studying for hours at a time and not feel that relief again until she fell asleep and her mind went into unconscious thought.

A familiar hand touched her shoulder and Casey turned around to it's owner, a warm smile across her face. She stood up and softly gave Max a peck on the cheek and a hug before she resumed her position on the bench and he joined her. After a week of dating, Casey and Max had decided that they should meet after school at this bench, it was easier for both of them to get to in time. A sigh escaped from Max's lips and Casey turned her attention back to him, wondering what was wrong. She hoped that he wasn't too upset about her having to miss lunch, but she assumed it must have been something else when he smiled at her quickly.

"So, will you be able to make lunch tomorrow?" Max asked, finally breaking the silence.

Casey smiled playfully, "I don't know, I was thinking that maybe I should get a late start to school and miss first period more often."

Max rolled his eyes at her sarcasm, "Well, good." He took a breath before continuing, "Since the week is over Wednesday, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out that night?"

Casey's smile warmed and she nodded excitedly, "Of course!"

Max smiled back and nodded quickly, he knew she would call about plans later that night, Casey was usually the one to set everything in stone. Normally, they would sit on the bench for a good while before both went home, but it all had to be cut short this time due to Max having football practice. Once he looked at the time, he told Casey he had to go and she stood to give him a hug and a kiss, and then they parted their own separate ways.

On the drive home, Casey couldn't help but smile to herself while she thought about her date with Max on Wednesday. Since school would be out, she was hoping they would be able to spend that night and the rest of the break together. Thanks to Derek, the past couple of days had been rocky for them. Casey hated to see Max feel so bad at the hand of someone as pitiful as Derek, who was just a big immature jerk. It had never registered to Casey why Derek would treat anyone that way, he obviously had some sense of compassion. It had only been a few times that Casey had been able to witness the fact that Derek actually had a heart, but she had in fact seen it. It amazed Casey that someone could be so heartless towards people the way he was, especially someone who was as great of an older brother as he was! She really didn't see where it all changed, he become the complete polar opposite when he was around her, what could possibly be so bad about her that it behooved him to treat her so foully? Whatever his motives, Casey was determined to put a stop to it. All of this fighting she could handle as long as it was with her, but once it stood in the way of a relationship, things changed. There would be no way she would sacrifice her relationship with Max because Derek couldn't stop pranking him.

Once she arrived home, Casey quickly went to her room and closed the door, she was on a mission and this was only the beginning. Her first step was to plan what she would say to Derek, she couldn't go into this thing without proper preparation, she knew for sure she would fail if she did that. Of course, thinking about what she would say to Derek wouldn't be too difficult considering she had a lot to say and enough passion to say all of it. Her second task, however, would be harder. The confrontation that she faced was almost too much pressure, whenever she had to confront Derek about anything things never went her way. He would turn his signature smirk on her and then say something full of sarcasm just to spite her, and off she would go stomping back to her room. That could not happen this time, she felt too strongly about it to give up so easily. The last step in this process would most likely turn out the complete opposite as she wanted. She hoped that Derek would take this to heart and confess to his reasons for bothering Max, but Casey knew that wouldn't happen. What would probably happen would be along the lines of him telling her that it was just fun to watch her squirm. Of course, wouldn't that be his only reason?

Casey stared down at her note cards, why was she wasting paper for Derek? She sighed to herself, maybe if she just thought all of this out inside her head it would be better, that way she wouldn't waste the paper. Oh, Liz would be proud of her! But, no, Casey knew she couldn't do that, if she kept everything in her head it would never come out the way she wanted it to when she confronted Derek. But where would she start? Finding a place to start was always a problem for Casey, what if she started in the wrong place? Everything would fall apart quickly, but it wasn't like this was a major paper she was trying to get out for English class, this was just a confrontation with Derek, who cared? Well, the truth was Casey did, she didn't want to say the wrong thing and throw his entire confession down the drain, if she worded everything correctly maybe he would actually give in and tell her his true motives. Casey took a deep breath and began writing.

Roughly thirty minutes later, Casey found herself smirking and staring down at a brilliantly written confrontation that would be sure to get a confession from that menace of a step brother of hers. Hastily, Casey made sure they were in perfect order, and stood up from her computer desk. This was going to work out, it had to work out, why wouldn't it work out? Well, it was Derek after all, many things could happen to throw the whole confession off and then what would Casey do? Derek would be prepared for her to attack him again and there would be no next time hopes for her, this was her only shot to get anything from Derek without having to sacrifice too much. Casey wondered why everything was always so cutthroat when it came to Derek, she always found herself having to sacrifice things for him. First it was private school, then the amount of time she spent in the bathroom, then the car, and now this. Would she ever win?

Casey found herself standing in front of Derek's bedroom door, pacing herself she knocked quietly. Waiting impatiently, she began to tap her foot and when he didn't answer, she knocked louder. As he opened the door, Casey looked him up and down, a serious look now forming on her face. She was so nervous, but there wasn't much of a reason to be. She kept repeating in her head that it was only Derek, but then why would she be nervous? This was something she wanted to get to the bottom of, why was Derek bothering Max and sabotaging their relationship?! If she could come to a conclusion then maybe she could fix all their problems. Deep down, though, Casey had the feeling that even if she did find out what Derek's problem was, it wouldn't help much of anything in their relationship. Maybe they just weren't supposed to be together, without Derek's _help_.

"Derek," she began, looking down at her note cards, "I've noticed recently that you can't seem to avoid pranking on Max and literally sabotaging our relationship. You say that you're only doing it because he is the captain of the football team and you the hockey team, and apparently that makes you arch enemies, but we both know that it is something more." Casey looked up, while taking a breath, at Derek's emotionless face, "I understand that you may lack a certain organ that allows you to feel any compassion, but your pranks are seriously affecting our relationship and we would both appreciate it if you would stop this immaturity. If you will not stop completely, than at least succumb to pestering me as much as you would like, but no matter how hard it is for you to believe, Max is a great guy and I don't want to loose him because of you. If you can't understand that, then at least tell me why you are doing all of this." Casey concluded with a deep breath.

Upon looking at Derek, who was now leaning against the doorframe, a smirk on his face, she added, ⌠The truth, Derek, please.■

A pleading look was apparent in her blue eyes and she hoped that Derek would see it and take note of how important this was to her. For some reason, when he saw a look like that in her eye, it caused him to act a touch more compassionate than he normally would. But this time she just couldn't read him, why was he going to say? Casey didn't know and if he didn't say something soon she felt as if she would burst into one thousand flames and burn the entire house down with all the anger she was beginning to feel.

The smirk slowly left Derek's lips, "Casey, you know I only bother Max to get to you."

Derek's winced slightly, woah! Where was all of this coming from? What had made him spill something like that? And to Casey of all people! It was something about the plea in her eye that just made him blurt the first thing that came to his head out - well, the second thing. No way would he ever dish the real reason he was doing all of this. Unfortunately, this real reason had occurred to him just the day before and he was determined to suppress it until the end of time. There would be no real confession to her anytime soon, or ever, at that. He didn't know what was wrong with him and he had figured that avoiding her would be the best way to figure things out. There would be no way that he would deal with any feelings he might have at all. Not that he had feelings for Casey, no. He was Derek! He would never have feelings for anyone like Casey except maybe hatred. No, that was too strong, but a natural disliking would do him just perfectly, why did things have to become this complicated? Derek didn't know what he was going to do, but at the moment she was looking at him oddly and he wanted it to stop.

Before Casey could say anything else, Derek shut the door in her face violently, leaving her to stomp off to her bedroom the way she had expected she would. Except this time was different, the reaction she had expected had been nothing like what had actually happened. Even though she didn't get a direct answer out of him and she still didn't know what was going on, she did know that something else was going on. Something strange was going on with Derek and now she was even more determined to crack him and make him spill everything he was hiding. After all, what if it was something serious? Of course, what could possibly be a good enough excuse for Derek to act so oddly? This had to be something big because otherwise he would just shrug it off and remain cool and collected like he always did, something Casey was found herself envying him for, the only thing.

Being snapped out of her thoughts by her mom calling "Dinner!", Casey tried to shake everything off and pull a Derek - calm and collected. She could worry about his weird behavior later, of course, that would require her ignoring him at the dinner table. Casey sighed, this would be hard to do considering this was the time that he had a field day with sarcastic comments and harsh situations. It never failed that when she had had a good day, Derek would be the one to ruin it, even it wasn't him doing it directly. If it weren't for the fact that his behavior was interfering with her relationship, then Casey probably wouldn't care about it at all, but that would be too much to ask for. Rolling her eyes at the thought, and Derek's immaturity, Casey headed down to dinner.


End file.
